Legislature considers tow fees

By Mike Leidemann
Advertiser Transportation Writer

If you need a tow truck when your car breaks down on Farrington Highway or your new four-wheel-drive truck gets stuck in the sand at Bellows, it's caveat emptor — buyer beware!

Yesterday was the 23rd day of the 60-day session.

"There's always a chance someone's going to get really stuck with a big bill," said Alison Powers, executive director of the Hawai'i Insurers Council, which supports efforts at the Legislature to develop new licensing requirements and other regulations for an estimated 200 tow-truck operators in the state.

State law provides strict regulation for so-called nonconsensual tows — like those when the police have your car removed from a no-parking zone or an apartment manager has your auto removed from a private stall. In those instances, state laws provide a detailed payment schedule for towing, storage and other expenses,

A new provision added last year even requires tow-truck operators to have a cash-dispensing machine on their premises for drivers who turn up to reclaim their errant cars. Owners routinely pay more than $100 for most tows, according to the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs.

Consensual tows — like those when an owner wants his vehicle towed to a repair shop or out of a tight space — aren't regulated at all.

Lawmakers are considering a number of bills to change that. Among the proposals still alive this session are measures that would require all tow-truck owners to obtain a license and to display special decals on their trucks; assign the state Commerce and Consumer Affairs Department to oversee the industry; and set a fee schedule for consensual tows.

"We do need some better controls, but all that regulation isn't necessarily the best answer," said Jan Wakayama, owner of Ace Towing and president of Hawai'i State Towing Association, which represents five of the biggest tow-truck companies in the state.

Wakayama said his group is trying to rein in some of the worst "bandits" in the industry. Wakayama and others said competitive pressures in the industry, where all you need to start your own company is a tow truck, can occasionally lead the worst of the tow-truck owners to take advantage of a motorist in distress.

"Yes, there are a few bad ones out there who do that, but that's not the usual thing," he said. "You just hear about the worst cases."

Powers said insurance companies frequently see outsized bills for their customers with towing insurance.

In one of the worst cases, a tow-truck operator called to Bellows Air Force Station charged a driver $2,000 to pull a brand-new car out of the sand and just a few feet to solid ground and refused to release the car to its driver before the bill was paid, according to Powers. Because the car was worth far more than $10,000, the insurance company agreed to pay the bill; its only recourse would have been to sue the operator to recover the money, a long and costly process.

Despite such oft-told tales, the towing industry in the state has a relatively clean record, said Anne Deschene, president of Hawai'i's Better Business Bureau.

The bureau received just 17 complaints about tow truck companies last year, "not even close to being in our top 10," she said. Nationally, tow truck companies rank 85th out of more than 1,100 industries when it comes to inquiries and complaints, she said.

Carolyn Fujioka, a spokeswoman for State Farm, Hawai'i's largest insurer of autos, added that truly out-of-line bills are rare. "When we see something that's really exorbitant, we look into it and usually find there's an explanation, like somebody having their car pulled off a cliff," she said.

While taking no official position on this year's efforts at the Legislature, the state's Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs seemed to distance itself from any new regulations.

Officials noted that regulations for nonconsensual tows were imposed because drivers in such situations are not in a position to negotiate rates or comparison-shop.

"By contrast, vehicle owners in consensual tows are able to negotiate rates," the department's Jo Ann Uchida said in testimony last month before the House Transportation Committee. "As such, rate regulation for consensual tows may not be necessary at this time."

Waiting with a broken-down car on a highway at night or a remote beach is hardly a good time to be comparison-shopping, Powers said. In that case, you're going to pay "whatever you have to pay to get your car out of there."

Reach Mike Leidemann at mleidemann@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-5460.